Doubts
by Louisa4533
Summary: Leo doubts the Seven's needing him. The camp convinces him in a rather weird and violent way to stay. Oneshot.


"LEO VALDEZ!"

I cringed. That would be Beauty Queen. Only one person I knew could yell my name that loudly. And I didn't even do anything with the Stolls this time! _Noooo_, I just kind of…blew up, so to say. I guess. Probably. Maybe.

"YOU _WILL_GET BACK HERE OR SO HELP ME HEPHAESTUS I WILL FRY YOU TO BITS!"

Fry me to bits. Wow. Does she realize that she's talking to a fire-proof guy? Maybe I should tell her that…

Nah.

"DO I NEED TO GET ANNABETH?!"

I cringed. That girl scared me worse than Percy. Where the heck did dumb blondes come from? One look at Annabeth would make everyone forget that saying. The entire Athena cabin was blond and all of them were terrifyingly genius.

"Leo!" someone else yelled, significantly quieter than Piper. "Leo, c'mon! Don't run away for a seventh time! We need you!"

_We need you_.

They always say that. But they didn't mean it. I was just the Repair Boy. I couldn't fix a metal dragon right. I couldn't avoid getting possessed and re-starting the (very short) Civil War. I couldn't even protect Jason from getting whapped on the head for who-knows-how-many-times in two days. I had all these fancy powers and some brains, but who needs you when you have Percy, the powers, and Annabeth, the brains? The perfect duo that succeeded in so much?

_Don't run away for a seventh time._

The worst possible thing you could say to me, other than insulting Festus or Mom. That just encouraged me. I had too many people say that to me. And the one time I gave in, I got my best friend and adopted sister killed.

No.

I'd stayed here too long. I'd developed attachments. Now it'd be even harder to leave. But I had to do it, before I got someone killed, _again_.

_The seventh wheel._

_The seventh time._

_The seventh home._

_The seventh rejection._

_The seventh battle._

I am leaving.

"_LEO_!"

Pipes's voice, no longer angry. Now it was tinged with desperation and fear.

_Walk away now,_ Gaea had urged, what felt like so many lifetimes ago, back in Detroit in the Monocle Motors car factory. Piper had cried out like that then.

And just like what felt like so many lifetimes ago, I growled to myself and my tool belt, "Not likely. Gimme the biggest hammer you got."

**WHOOPEE! I'M A LINE BREAKER! DON'T MIND ME!**

I found Piper looking terrified as Kapotris was sticking out from the ground point first ten feet away from her, and a blade was at her throat. A hooded man that just screamed _bad guy over here! _stood behind her, holding said blade.

"Oh, Leo, thank the gods," she whispered.

"Where's Jason?" I asked.

Even under the hood, I could see the guy smile creepily. "Your magnificent heroes are…distracted, at the moment."

I snorted. "I don't know Percy all that well, even after saving each other's lives who-knows-how-many-times, but I do know that nothing short of Typhon would slow him down. Especially if he was with Annabeth and Jason."

He chuckled, a mixture of grinding rocks and a shaking growl. Just because I'm the fire guy doesn't mean I don't get goosebumps. And why do people even call them goosebumps?

Focus, Leo. Gods.

Faster than I thought I could move, I whapped my three-pound battle hammer on his head, forcing him to defend himself. Luckily, he pushed Piper away. Unluckily, her head hit a rock and knocked her out. Now I was defending her unconscious form and myself without back up against a clearly powerful guy that could withstand Piper's charmspeak.

Awesome.

He struck at me, practically a whirlwind, rivaling Percy's skills with the sword. The blade was black, but it wasn't Stygian iron. I didn't know what it was. The hilt was silver, with leather wrapped around the handle. The hooded guy attacked with a flurry of strokes, both Greek and Roman (I've hung out with Jason long enough to know what Roman techniques looked like), forcing me backwards and put me on the defensive side. Sometime during all this I'd gotten another battle hammer in my right hand, blocking his strikes by some complete fluke and attacking, just about everything around me blazing, reacting to my anger and protectiveness of Piper.

I pushed forward, blocking and striking with my hammers, my favorite tool and weapon. It was the reason why I liked Annabeth. She'd told me that before Thalia found her, her weapon against hellhounds and _dracaenae_ had been a one-pound, steel hammer. I respected her even more for that. Hellhounds were some serious monsters, besides Mrs. O'Leary.

The look the guy had on his face was surprise and respect, like he wasn't used to being pushed back.

I don't even know what in Hephaestus's forges happened, but the next thing I know the black blade was hilt-deep in the ground, my hammers were flaming, and I was straddling Piper's attacker.

To my surprise, the first thing I heard was, "Pay up, Jason."

I was utterly confused.

"I can honestly say, I wasn't expecting that," Annabeth said, taking off her invisibility, smiling. "Percy, you've got bad guy _down_."

"You know I've faced too many bad guys when I can imitate them perfectly," the hooded guy under me said, grinning.

Jason dropped down from the tree above me, looking stunned. "Dude, Leo…holy _crap_."

"Amen!" Piper said, sitting up from her 'knocked out' position.

Clarisse stepped out from behind the Poseidon cabin smugly. "I told you guys he was like Prissy."

"And I never thought that you might be right, Claire," Hazel said, peeking out from a half-burnt bush. "Is he still flaming?"

"Nah," Conner said, falling out of his hiding place, Travis soon behind him. Conner managed to land on his feet—that is until Travis landed on him, both of them letting out muffled yells.

Frank snickered at the two from his place behind the tree they just fell out of, turning into human form from some small animal.

Jason tossed Clarisse a leather bag from his perch in a tree.

I was so confused.

"What the flaming heck is going on?!" I yelled. "Do you guys not care about the fact that this guy had a sword at Beauty Queen's throat?!"

"And no, Leo, I didn't go easy on you," the guy under me said, laughing. "I can honestly say that was the hardest fight I've had since I fell."

I ripped off his hood. It was Percy, his green eyes dancing with laughter at my astonishment.

"What the—" I stuttered. "How did you— No, how did I— Are you guys playing a trick on me?!"

Annabeth shook her head, amused. "No, Leo. We wanted to show you that we really _do_ need you. And trust me, I know Percy well enough that he was giving it his all to avoid being knocked out or incinerated."

I could feel myself heating up from my anger. "You know that I would've killed him with his own sword without second thought for hurting Piper?!"

Piper glanced at me, a smile playing at her lips. "Exactly, Leo."

"Leo, you don't realize how powerful you are, and you degrade yourself because of it, because you've been degraded your whole life," Jason said from his perch in the tree.

"I've already gotten one person killed because of my stupidity! No, make that two people! First my mom, then my adopted sister! There's a _reason_ I run!" I yelled at them, getting off of Percy. He grabbed my arm as I turned around to run to Bunker Nine to get my stuff.

"And how do you think I feel, Leo? I nearly got my own mother killed, but she wasn't dead, thanks to Lord Hades. I've nearly gotten Annabeth and Grover killed. I got Nico's sister killed. I got Lady Artemis's eldest Huntress killed. So many people died in the Titan War, and I'm the one that led them. And one of the first casualties was _your brother_, Leo. Beckendorf. The one whose bed you now sleep in. And trust me when I say this, for I've spoken to Beckendorf personally about you, he is proud that you're the next owner of his bed. He's proud about your skills, how you're the leader of your cabin, how you practically killed yourself making the _Argo II_, for Wise Girl and for me. And don't even get me started on the Giant War, Leo. I hide it well. Both me and Annabeth hide it well, but we still wake up screaming from nightmares from our time in that pit."

Percy let go of my arm. "I won't stop you, Leo. Each of us deals with grief in their own way. But don't hold grudges. Ask Nico, they'll get you killed faster than any loyalty."

I can honestly say that I was stunned. I wouldn't know how to cope with so many deaths on my head.

"And don't forget about me, Leo," Hazel said, her usually golden eyes now the color of tin, plain and somber. "You know of my curse. I've got deaths on my own head as well."

"We've all got hard lives, Leo," Annabeth said softly, like it was a hard admission to make. "You remember the hammer I fought monsters with when I was seven, after I ran away from home, also when I was seven. _Seven_, Leo. A little girl with no street knowledge in Virginia, running away from Greek mythology monsters and the monsters known as her step-mother and half-brothers. I was only a little younger than you were when you first ran away."

"Don't forget about me," Jason said dryly above me. "I was taken by a psychopathic goddess when I was two, away from my sister Thalia. I was the reason she ran away, and basically the reason she got turned into a pine tree in the first place. If you think about it, I was the first cause of the wars."

"My mother was killed in war, the very thing I was sired from," Frank put his two cents in.

"I was driven insane in the Labyrinth," Chris said.

"I've been in the camp longer than Annabeth has. I came here when I was seven as well, but I'm older than Annabeth," Clarisse said gruffly.

"And she got knocked around by toilet water when I came," Percy said dryly, eliciting a snicker from the Stolls and a glare from Clarisse and Annabeth.

"And you already know where I come from, Admiral," Piper said jokingly.

Annabeth grinned at Piper, but then turned towards Leo. "We've all got a sob story, Valdez. Demigods are signed up for dangerous lives, often before they're even born. You know that one out of five demigods don't even make it to twelve years old? Some don't even make it out of babyhood."

"Some don't even make it out of childbirth," Travis said solemnly.

"It's called moving on, Leo. It helps with a better life. And Esperanza doesn't blame you," Nico said. "Percy's right, grudges will kill you faster than anything you've ever seen. I held a grudge against Percy for a year and nearly went to my father's realm permanently far too many times than I like to think about."

I looked at him incredulously, but decided not to ask what the flaming heck he could've been so mad about.

"He blamed me for his sister's death," Percy explained quietly to me. "I had been on the quest that she'd gone on, and I'd made a promise to try to bring her back safely. I failed. He blamed me for a full six months."

"Fine," I said, reluctantly. "But if one of you gets killed and I'm even indirectly involved, I'm disappearing so fast your head will be going, _now you see him, now you don't_."

Percy laughed. "Deal, Valdez. And Piper, I have to say that you take after your dad nicely. I've never seen even Annabeth act that well."

Piper snorted. "I didn't have to act. A sword up against my throat no matter who it is that's holding the sword is scary."

"That reminds me, how did you change the blade's look?" I said, curious.

Percy rolled his eyes. "Thalia taught me to manipulate the Mist after the Giant War. You remember that, Piper?"

"Shut up, Percy! I still seriously hate you for that!" Piper yelled. I snickered. That'd been hilarious.

Everyone who'd been there laughed.

"But yeah, it's still Riptide, just looking a little different," Percy said, shrugging, pulling the pen out from his pocket. It was still black, and all of a sudden it looked normal. "See?"

Piper grumbled about Percy's stupid fingers. Percy covered up a laugh with a cough.

"Shut up, Jackson!"

I was laughing my head off.

**I'd been reading someone's story and this popped into my head. I thought you guys might like it.**


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